Brilliant? Exploitative? All in the name of marketing? Serves purpose despite motives? We encourage you to read/watch the following resources and let us know what you think in the comments!
"But the marketing gimmick itself requires something else: recognition of another human being, one who is suffering. Whereas plenty of people seemed to think that was dehumanizing, it’s actually kind of the opposite: it’s literally humanizing. Thinking about and looking at the homeless is hard."
"The reality is that the homeless make us uncomfortable; so much so that it is simply easier to ignore them, to look away, or to cross to the other side of the street."
"But I don’t want to feel bad, or to think about their lives: I’d rather give them all of the money in my wallet than have a conversation with them because humanizing a person makes them hard to ignore, to walk away from. That is part of what I think is at the center of the outpouring of negative feelings about this marketing stunt."
"The reality is that the homeless make us uncomfortable; so much so that it is simply easier to ignore them, to look away, or to cross to the other side of the street."
"But I don’t want to feel bad, or to think about their lives: I’d rather give them all of the money in my wallet than have a conversation with them because humanizing a person makes them hard to ignore, to walk away from. That is part of what I think is at the center of the outpouring of negative feelings about this marketing stunt."
If you feel like reading one more, this article does a nice job - Homeless Hotspots: Controversy at 4G Speeds
Note: you may have seen the We Are Visible link in the article above. For those that have seen firsthand the needs of the homeless, a site such as this is a needed resource for the homeless. A future blog post will discuss the opportunities email, social media, and other internet resources provide for the homeless.
So what do you think? Is this a move for the betterment of the homeless or rather exploitation of an already misconceived, degraded part of society? Let us know.